Braund, 'RESPONSE: Braund on Wheeler on Braund', Bryn Mawr Classical Review 9508
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/bmcr/bmcr-9508-braund-response
@@@@95.9.28, RESPONSE: Braund on Wheeler on Braund
Georgia in Antiquity Again
By David Braund -- University of Exeter
D.C.Braund@exeter.ac.uk
I have never taken the trouble to respond to a review in the
past, however much I may have disagreed with the criticisms which
one expects and may very well deserve. But I have also never
received a review so distorted, unsubstantiated and simply
unpleasant as that which appeared in BMCR 95.4.5
under the name of Everett Wheeler. I am grateful to the editors
for the right to reply, but will not abuse their openness by
labouring every point. Rather, I shall address what I perceive to
be Wheeler's principal "criticisms", none of which have appeared
in other early reviews whether generalist or Caucasus-specific.
1. Scholarship on Georgia in the West
Wheeler claims that "B. misrepresents the state of
scholarship" on the ancient history of Georgia. I have, it seems,
"overlooked western scholarship in Caucasiology" (sic),
but W. does not say which: as far as I am aware, there is nothing
of significance to which I have not referred. In what seems to be
an attempt to support his allegation, Wheeler proceeds to claim
that I have somehow forgotten about or sought to deny the
existence of libraries in the West which have relevant holdings,
despite my various expressions of thanks to such institutions and
their staff in my Preface. I have also--I am told--neglected the
existence of the "generous summaries" which appear in Russian and
Georgian publications: W. was not to know that I have in fact
written some of these summaries as well as assisting
nonspecialists and/or graduate students who have been required to
write them. Although some summaries are indeed accurate and
valuable, I should advise Wheeler and others that many a summary
not only omits the core argument of its paper (less often a
problem in books, it must be said) but sometimes misrepresents it
even more thoroughly than Wheeler has done with my book. Since,
as far as I know, Wheeler has no Georgian and little Russian, I
cannot condemn his ignorance, but I do object to his petulance.
But most annoying and silly is his assertion that I am
somehow unfair to or even contemptuous of the work of Otar
Lordkipanidze. Quite apart from the lengthy list of that
scholar's publications in my bibliography (some 22 items, not to
mention the 8 vols. on Vani) and his regular appearance in my
text and footnotes, Prof. Lordkipanidze is a personal friend of
some ten years' standing. His help and support are gratefully
acknowledged in the Preface, where much more could have been
said.
Also silly, and rather puzzling, is W.'s view that my
omission of references to RE articles "epitomizes (my)
scholarly method". Although RE is often a good source of
information, it is simply not a great resource for the eastern
Black Sea. In any event, its fans can always look it up.
I am further castigated for omitting a reference to Gelzer's
1949 biography of Pompey. Where does one draw the line? Gelzer's
book may be a classic of its kind, but is it not enough to refer
in detail to much more recent and important studies, such as
those of Seager, Sherwin-White and others, who have engaged with
Gelzer thoroughly?
The omission that seems really to matter to Everett Wheeler,
however, is the dissertation of a certain Everett Wheeler, which
is apparently a biography of Arrian, completed in 1977 and not
published in book form. Wheeler devotes no less than eleven lines
of his review to that "omission", an attention which I take to
indicate the level of his concern. Curiously, he refers to this
work in the third person, rather as Caesar refers to his own
activities in his Commentarii, presumably in order to
establish some distance between himself and the "slighted"
author. He can assert with authority that I have indeed known of
the existence of this biography since 1989, not because I have
ever cited it but because ever since I first met him in that year
he has urged me to read it, which I of course have not done, if
only for that reason. What I take to be Wheeler's veiled
suggestion that I have plagiarized his dissertation is false and
outrageous. However, I am grateful for that suggestion to the
extent that it seems to offer some explanation for the otherwise
inexplicable animosity of the review.
2. What the book is not
The subject of my book is the history of Colchis and
Transcaucasian Iberia from the sixth century BC to the sixth
century AD. Quite large enough a historical canvas, one might
have thought, chronologically and geographically. But no. Wheeler
complains (his italics), "This book is not a comprehensive
treatment of Transcaucasia: Albania (Azerbaijan), Armenia, and
tribes north of the Caucasus are omitted." Indeed, it is not a
history of the whole of Transcaucasia, nor does it claim to be,
though other Transcaucasian peoples and places are discussed
where they impinge upon Georgia. So far from being omitted, I
find Albania and Armenia in my index with a combined total of
some 42 references, often to more than a single page. An
important part of my discussion of Roman Iberia, in my view, is
the connection between the Iberi and the "Sarmatian" peoples to
the north (esp. pp. 208-11), while I also devote several
controversial passages to the rather neglected links between
Colchians and "Scythians" (see index under "Scythians").
He proceeds to thunder "as a work of archaeology the book is
curious: Stone Age and Bronze Age Colchis are treated
perfunctorily". True enough, for this is a work of history, as my
introductory discussion stresses and as its title suggests. It is
not archaeology and it is not prehistory. Indeed, there would be
a case for omitting all mention of prehistory (my book begins c.
550 BC) had it not become a marginal issue in local debates about
regional identities. More interesting is Wheeler's complaint
("Iberia is slighted") that I have little to say about early
Iberia. He is right, but, as I explain, we are not yet in a
position to write the history of early Iberia: scholars who have
devoted their lives to attempting to wrestle with Iberian
questions have not taken umbrage but have cited my work on Iberia
with apparent approval (e.g. Apakidze and Nikolaishvili, The
Antiquaries Journal 74 (1994) 16-54). Wheeler may feel
slighted, but the Iberians do not.
3. The chapters
Wheeler spins through the book denouncing each chapter in
terms so vague and laden with bile that I find it difficult and
distasteful to engage with them satisfactorily. His triumphant
dismissal of my first chapter (on the place of Colchis in the
thought-world of the Greeks and Romans) seems to derive from a
belief that I consider myths of Argonauts and the like to be in
some crude sense historical realities. Only on p. 74 do I realise
my mistake, it seems: better late than never, I suppose. My
second chapter he pronounces OK for "beginners in Caucasian
studies" but not satisfying for "advanced students", presumably
like Everett Wheeler. I cannot resist the observation that the
reviewer has never visited the Caucasus to my knowledge: while
much can be gained from books a significant part of my second
chapter derives from autopsy. Each subsequent chapter is
dismissed in turn and in much the same sweeping fashion: en
passant I have been unfair again to my friend Otar
Lordkipanidze and have produced many a dubious and unconvincing
hypothesis, though I remain to be told what is wrong with any of
them.
4. General scholarly incompetence
It seems that I exhibit incompetence throughout. In
particular, "misprints occur" (one is noted), I fail to refer
adequately to SEG (though I refer to fuller and more
accurate discussions of relevant texts), I am in a muddle about
the Historia Augusta and, perhaps above all, I do not know
the difference between Aristotle and Heraclides Letobus. Those
who might be bothered to look at my text will find, for example,
a discussion of Letobus which shows the nonsense of such
allegations: see pp. 75-6, to which Wheeler does not refer,
though it is indexed under "Heraclides Letobus". Of course, his
misreading, however wilful, might mean that I should have
expressed myself more clearly.
5. My own criticisms of my book
Wheeler berates me for the apparent immodesty and
boastfulness with which I begin the book. Accordingly, I should
say, as I wrote in the opening paragraph of my Preface, that the
book "...is not meant to be the last word. On the contrary, I
hope that it will spark further debate and enquiry, not least in
Georgia" (p. vii). I am sure that better can and will be done.
For example, if I had been competent in Armenian I would have
taken my history on a century or so. If finance and attendant
circumstances had not been a consideration, I would have produced
fuller maps (Wheeler's best area of complaint), though I expect
the Atlas of the Classical World to remedy that deficit.
However, Wheeler's own recipe for "a much better book" does
not attract my palate--"a division of the material into sections
of Evidence and Studies" seems to me not only dull, but also to
illustrate a complete ignorance of the problematics of Evidence.
Accordingly, in complaining about my approach to colonization
(apparently trendy, which I find surprising but gratifying),
Wheeler intones "B. marshals the evidence to support his
hypotheses. Definitive answers still lie far in the future". So
long as I am not accused of suppressing evidence (which I am not,
it seems), I am proud in response to that particular charge to
plead "Guilty!"